Hello Andrew,
 
please send me a copy,   I will send you a few Australian shells in return
- because postage will be expensive.  If you have something in particular
you would like let me know, otherwise I'll send you shells that I have
collected myself off Yeppoon (Keppel Bay - Queensland).
 
Sher Williams
51 Alfred Quinn Drive
Middlemount  Q  4746
Australia
 
----------
> From: Andrew K. Rindsberg <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Color of cypraeids (cowries)
> Date: Wednesday, 29 April 1998 1:17
>
> A technical article by Enrico Savazzi has just been published, entitled
> "The colour patterns of cypraeid gastropods" (Lethaia, v. 31, no. 1,
15-27,
> 1998). According to Savazzi, the color patterns of adult cypraeids
> (cowries) differ from those of most mollusks by having three-dimensional
> structure, the result of being generated two-dimensionally. Most mollusks
> with a color pattern have a one-dimensional "program" for color
generation.
> In other words, most mollusks have color patterns made of unevenly
> distributed pigment, but cowries have color patterns determined by the
> different thickness of a pigmented layer. This would account nicely for
the
> subtlety of coloration in cowries. The article is well illustrated with
> black-and-white photos and describes a computer model of cowry
> pigmentation. Given that 190 of 200 species of cypraeids are strikingly
> colored, Savazzi concludes that the patterns must have some functional
> significance (which may differ from species to species), but, as usual,
> "More research is needed" to discern the functional patterns behind the
> color patterns.
>
> Lethaia is a paleontological journal that is widely distributed in
college
> libraries. I will send photocopies to the first five emailers who write
> with their mailing addresses. Please don't ask if you already have access
> to the journal in a library.
>
> Andrew K. Rindsberg
> Geological Survey of Alabama